Cutout life indicator gauge
AssigneeHubbell Incorporated
InventorRobert Wolf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gauge for determining the operational viability of a device that requires that a consumable or otherwise erodible material for safe and/or efficient operation reside along or near an inside wall of a cavity, for example, a fuse tube containing an ablative arc-extinguishing material as found in a fused cutout, is provided, which gauge measures whether a sufficient quantity of the material to be consumed remains.
Claims16
A gauge for measuring whether a device that requires a consumable material contains enough of the consumable material for safe or effective use, the gauge comprising:
- a gauge portion extending from a handle portion,
- the gauge portion comprising a gauge body, the gauge body having a closed distal end and one or more markings at selected distances from the closed distal end,
- the gauge body being of a shape and size enabling the gauge body to be inserted into and progress through a cavity in the device when none of the consumable material is present, wherein the gauge body is configured such that said progress is blocked by a presence of a sufficient amount of the consumable material in the cavity,
- wherein the markings comprise pass/fail markings that indicate a depth of insertion in the cavity, and/or hatch marks that measure a length of the gauge body inserted into the cavity, wherein visibility or lack of visibility of the pass/fail markings, or a number of the hatch marks that are visible, indicate whether enough of the consumable material remains for the safe or effective use of the device.
A gauge for measuring whether a device that requires a consumable material contains enough of the consumable material for safe or effective use, the device being a fuse tube and the consumable material being an ablative material in the fuse tube, the gauge comprising:
- a gauge portion extending from a handle portion,
- the gauge portion comprising a gauge body, the gauge body having a closed distal end and a plurality of markings at selected distances from the closed distal end,
- the gauge body being of a shape and a size enabling the gauge body to be inserted into and progress through a cavity in the fuse tube when none of the ablative material is present, wherein the gauge body is configured such that said progress is blocked by a presence of an effective amount of the ablative material,
- wherein the markings are hatch marks to measure how far the gauge has progressed through the gauge body, wherein a number of the hatch marks that are visible indicate whether enough of the consumable material remains for the safe or effective use of the device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.